Death of Philippine: Bruno Retailleau promises to “turn the tables”

“Death of Philippine : Bruno Retailleau promises to & ;quot;turn the table"”

More than a week after Philippine Le Noir de Carlan was found dead in the Bois de Boulogne, the Minister of the Interior wants to “turn the tables, so that it doesn't happen again.”

The Essentials

• In the pages of theJournal du Dimanche, the new Minister of the Interior returned Sunday to the murder of Philippine Le Noir de Carlan. He promises to “do everything in his memory, even if it means breaking the rules, turning the tables, so that this doesn't happen again.”
• The 19-year-old student was found dead last Saturday, September 21 in the Bois de Boulogne, in the Paris region. She had disappeared the day before near her university, Paris-Dauphine.
• The main suspect in Philippine's murder is Taha O., a 22-year-old Moroccan national. He had already been convicted of rape in 2022 and had been subject to a an OQTF (obligation to leave French territory). Her former lawyer spoke on Saturday in Le Parisien: “We feared suicide, not a repeat offense,” confided Me Laura Beauvais.
• The suspect was arrested in Switzerland on Tuesday evening, while he was apparently trying to flee France. France will request his extradition, which could take a few weeks or even months.

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14:41 – Marion Maréchal deplores sanctions "that are not applied"

END OF LIVE – Guest on BFMTV and questioned about Taha O., main suspect in the murder of Philippine and subject to an OQTF that has not been executed, Marion Maréchal deplored sanctions “that are not applied”. The MEP denounced “a failure of the State” and wants “the questioning of the exceptional migration agreements with Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia”.

Regarding Bruno Retailleau's statements, she doubts that he will obtain “results”, since he is participating in “a government of the center, with a left-wing Minister of Justice”.

13:34 – Developing the French “legal arsenal”, Bruno Retailleau's promise

On Wednesday, the Minister of the Interior had already called for an evolution of the “legal arsenal” after the arrest of Taha O., the main suspect, in Switzerland. “Faced with such a tragedy, preceded by many others, we cannot be satisfied with deploring or being indignant”, he wrote in a press release.

On Monday, on TF1, Bruno Retailleau promised to use “all means” to “reduce immigration in France”, including changing European rules, and he made the execution of OQTFs a priority.

The new Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau returned to the JDD on Philippine's death and promises to “do everything in her memory, even if it means breaking the rules, turning the tables, so that “this does not happen again”. He wants to change the “flawed rules”, citing “early releases, the criminal response, sentence reductions, the length of detention, the conditions of expulsion, the non-suspensive appeal of prefects at the time of release in a CRA”.

After the student's death, several politicians criticized the “laxity of justice”, the main suspect having been released at the beginning of September while he was subject to an OQTF.

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A death by asphyxiation and gray areas

The body of the third-year undergraduate student in economics and financial engineering at Paris Dauphine University was discovered half-buried not far from the university canteen, where she had been last seen 2pm on September 20.Le Parisien revealed that the forensic doctors in charge of the autopsy had concluded on Sunday that the death was due to asphyxiation.

However, the exact circumstances of Philippine's death and the modus operandi of her potential assassin remain to be clarified. Because if strangulation is the first idea that comes to mind when we talk about death by asphyxiation, the coroners would be formal: Philippine would not have been strangled. The absence of traces of tightening would even tend to To rule out this hypothesis, notes Le Parisien, which also claims that the rumors according to which Philippine was the victim of beatings are false.

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To explain the asphyxiation, a source from the capital's daily newspaper mentions “compression”, without further details being provided for the time being. The “other examinations and expert assessments” to be carried out, mentioned on Sunday evening by the Paris prosecutor's office, could be explained by this lack of clarity in the situation. But an expert immediately dismisses the fact that not everything can be determined by the coroners and that we will have to wait for the results of the investigation work to know more. 

Philippine's body found partially buried

On Friday afternoon, the student had left the University around 2 p.m., after having lunch at the Crous. She was supposed to go to her parents' house in Yvelines, in Montigny-le-Bretonneux. That was the last time she was seen. Noticing that their daughter had not arrived, her parents had tried to call her, without success. The young woman's sister had been the first to raise the alarm, that same evening, at around 11 p.m., by going to the police station in the 16th arrondissement of the capital. A procedure for a disturbing disappearance had then been opened.

Concern quickly mounted among her relatives. Philippine was not in the habit of remaining unreachable for very long. Her phone was last called out in the Bois de Boulogne. A search was then organized on Saturday to try to find the missing young woman. Nearly fifty people lent a hand to the family by going to the scene. His phone first went off. found, before the discovery of the body, "à about 20 meters from where the device was discovered, behind a mound,” specifies Le Parisien.

&At 4:50 p.m., Philippine's body was discovered, partly buried, near a hiking trail. "The victim was “formally identified late in the evening” this Sunday, confirmed the Paris prosecutor's office to the Parisien, thanks in particular to the chain around her neck and the clothes she was wearing. An investigation has been opened for voluntary homicide and entrusted to the criminal brigade.

A man with a pickaxe seen by witnesses

Now, a question must be answered: what was Philippine doing at Le Noir de Carlan behind her University when she was supposed to go to her parents' house in Yvelines ? Indeed, the RER station on line C, which the student was supposed to take, is “on the other side”, explains Le Parisien. “He could sometimes go for a little walk there [in the Bois de Boulogne, editor's note], just to get some air, to get some fresh air,” said a family acquaintance on Tuesday.

According to information from Figaro, witnesses reportedly saw a man wearing a surgical mask and carrying a pickaxe heading towards the lake in the Bois de Boulogne. Did the individual, “brown-haired and about 1.80m tall”, provide a lead for investigators? ? The geolocation of Philippine's phone would have in any case guided the investigators' search, according to people close to the investigation who told the continuous news channel. At the same time, the hearings continued in recent days, and the relatives who participated in the searches on Saturday were to be heard in the premises of the criminal brigade.

Shock and incomprehension in Philippine's entourage

On Monday, a minute of silence to pay tribute to Philippine was organized in the reception hall of the university, an opportunity for those who knew her to remember the person she was. She was “a very intelligent, caring girl, very supportive with her classmates and above all full of life,” a former teacher of the young woman testified to the Parisien. “She was brilliant and very hard-working. She was a class leader. I often told myself that she would surely have access to better masters than me,” confided to Figaroa student. And another classmate added: “She was a very good student who loved reading. She was deeply kind. She was gentle and very discreet. She was not someone extravagant. She spent time with her family whenever she could.” 

While a prayer vigil was organized Sunday evening in the Saint-Pierre-du-Lac church, which the victim and her family attended, a supervisor of Philippine in the scouts also remembered her in the columns of the Figaro. “She is very active, very kind and very proactive. She was always willing and available if there was a need to do anything or to motivate others,” he recalled.

That Monday, at the university, the insecurity in the nearby Bois de Boulogne was unsurprisingly on everyone's lips, but those who knew Philippine wondered above all who could have had a grudge against her. “She was very hard-working, really nice, a little shy and reserved. “I don't know who could have wanted to hurt her,” a classmate confided to Figaro.  “I only knew her by sight, but she was a very nice girl who didn't seem to have any problems,” an acquaintance also noted to Parisien.